Tom Dowling
(863) 297-1051

PCC Awarded $2 Million U.S. Grant
For Healthcare Workforce Projects

12/12/2006: Polk Community College has been awarded a $2 million grant for workforce projects in healthcare. The monies come from the Agency for Workforce Innovation. The agency announced today that PCC is among four Florida community colleges that have received a total of $7.2 million Community Based Job Training Grants from the U.S. Department of Labor.

            “The Community Based Job Training Grants represent strategic investments that target specific industry sectors within each community and will add to the success of Florida’s workforce as a whole,” said Linda H. South, Director of the Agency for Workforce Innovation. “We are proud of the broad partnerships within the four communities that successfully competed for these awards.”

“We are so honored to receive this grant from the Department of Labor,” said PCC President Eileen Holden. “PCC plans to partner with the Polk County School District to create and sustain a pipeline into the healthcare profession. The focus of this grant will be on cardiovascular tech training to meet the workforce needs of our area hospitals. We already have a strong relationship with our hospital partners and this grant will serve to strengthen those ties.”

               Nationwide, 72 community college partnerships were awarded a total of $125 million for successfully competing under the President’s Community-Based Job Training Grants initiative. The grants work to strengthen the role of community colleges in promoting workforce’s full potential. The grants are employer-focused and build on the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative, a national model for demand-driven workforce development implemented by strategic partnerships between the workforce investment system, employers, and community colleges and other training providers. The primary purpose of the CBJTG grants is to build the capacity of community colleges to train workers to develop the skills required to succeed in high growth/high demand industries.